Of Coleridge as a jpo6< we do not here speak. Asa metaphysical theologian, his influence upon his own age, and especially upon its younger men of genius, was greater than that of any other Englishman. His mental attributes were of a high order, strangely blended, and thoroughly cultivated. To a subtlety which would have distinguished him in the age of scholasticism, he added a great compass of thought. The devotional and expository writings of the best English divines, such as Hooker, Taylor, Baxter, Leigh- ton, and Wesley, were congenial food for his mystical and religious nature. With his enlarged knowledge he abandoned Unitarianism, and formed for himself a half-complete theology, partly orthodox, partly mys- tical, and partly (though unconsciously) pantheistic.
*'It was one of his most cherished schemes — his €lvo^ ite vision in dondland— to compose a work of ooisi- sal proportions which should embrace the whole raa^ of mental philosophy taken in its widest naeaning in- cluding, of course, theology and retigion. He redr only wrote a few disconnected fragments of hismigjhtT task. But these fragments have proved of iwaam soggestiveness to yt>unger intellects, " and Cokridgeau may be found now among every class of Kngfah <£- vines, from the Broad Church to the highest F^ej- ites. The condition of the English mind at the tiise of Coleridge's appearance is to be noted, as aocoantiae for the wonderfol influence he gained. ' ' The receiT%d philosophy was sensationalism in intelligence s&l thought, and utilitarianism in morals ; and the noeiv«i theology contented itself with dealing fosth, itheo <£- dactic, the dry husks of a powerless moraUam, aid, when argumentative, with insisting npcm the exibenal evidences of Christianity. Grotins and Paler (vbcee Moral PhUosophg was a text-book at Cambridge) ven the oracles on the subject of the Christian evidence. Arianism and Unitarianism, always finmd alongade of sensationalism and materialism, had crept Ifte t fog-blight over half the foce of British ChristiaBBT. In such a state of things, it is easy to understand hiw the appearance of a teacher like Coleridge would be welcomed. He was the declared enemy of the sen»- tional and utilitarian philosophers. He was reputed to have mastered the German philosophy, to have ab- stracted from it what was sound and true, and to htn attained to a clear vision, from tiie ntmost bei^ <d human thought, of the ultimate unity, the perfect tad vital harmony, of philosophy and theology, of the rrr- elation of reason and the revelation of God. He pro- fessed himself a devout and orthodox ChrisUan behrr- er. Most of all, he impressed and attracted theyoong men of his tune by his noble ideal of tJiongfat and par- pose, his reverent spirit, his fiir-aeeing, practical wit- dom, his critical and intuitive sagacity, his onioo d deep learning, fine taste, and recluse habits, wiUi phil- osophic breadth of view and wide human sympathiei. ** One main point, perhaps the main pohit, of Coi«- ridge*s Philosophy was the K^ptian distinction betwaes the reason and the understanding. Upon this distinc- tion Coleridge grafted his peculiar, and, as we thinly unchristian doctrine of the Logos. Many who hare not followed Coleridge In the theological doctrine have agreed with him In reference to the metaphysical dis- tinction, according to which the nnderstanding is iJbt logical foculty in man, the reason is the intoitive &C- ulty, which stands fiice to foce with spiritaal and es- sential truth ; and the immediate object of which b, as Mr. Morell says, 'the good, the beautiful, and the true.' The intuitive foculty in man has thus asagoed to it an entirely separate sphere, and that the vefr highest. It dwells in a region apart, elevated abore that of the logical understanding, and is quite inde- pendent of it. Being thus independent of the under- standing, it is independent, so far as the morally good and right is conoemed, of revelation also (which nmft be presented to it through the understanding), exeep^ in so far as it may, by its own light and authority, ap- prove and warrant that which revelation Inings before it. For reason, understood as above defined, anist, whether in matters of taste, criticism, or morals, be the supreme judge, and be a law nnto itself. Thus the scintillations of genius and the light of piety are but different manifestations of the same fkculty. Hot well this accords with Coleridge's supplementary doe- trine, that reason is the light in man of the divine Lo- gos, and how naturally it is devel<^>ed into Manrioe's doctrine of the identification of the Word or Son of €rod, with all men, will be readily seen. How neariy related it is to the modem Pantheism is no less otm- ous. Coleridge, in a passage of his Table Talk, with which many passages in his writings fully accord, speaks of 'that higher state, to which Aristotle oould
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never nifle hiniBelf, bnt which waa natural to Plato, and haa been to others' fhimself, for mstanoe], *in whidi the onderBtanding Is diatfaictlj contemplated, and, aa it were, looked down npon ftom the throne of actual ideaa, or living, inborn, essential tmtlis.* He speaks of the spirit's ascending into *the empyreon of ideas.' He identifies the reason with the divine Lo- gos, making him, in tlds sense, to be the 'light which U^^teth every man that oometh Into the world.' He denies, as many have learned from him to deny, the posdbflity of a revelation ab extra. He speaks of the Trinity as an 'idea,' and analyzes this 'idea' in snch a way as to resolve the Tri-onity into what is really no better than a refined, Platonized Sabellianism— only not JSabellianism, because not allowed to be conceived under any conditions of time and space. Snch are some of the results of Coleridge's peculiar philosophy as appUed to solve, or as used to measure and define, the mysteries of being, human and divine" (see Curry, iaM^hodigt Quarterly, Hn.W^axt.^; andRigg,hi J/ert. QBorttr^, April, 1866, art. i; July, 1866, art. i). His views of Inepiration, as given in the Co^fettkms of an Inquirntff SjnrUf are almost as low as those of the Rationalists. EUs theory of the atonement seems to exclude ahnoet entirely the idea of substitution, in order to avmd what he calls the " commercial" theory. The onfy uniform edition of Coleridge's works is that of Professor Shedd (N. Y. Harpers, 1868, 7 vols. 12nio). Prefixed to it will be found Msjrsh's admira^ ble Preliminary Essay to the Aide to Sejkction, and also an able and genial Introductcny Essay by Pro- fessor Shedd. The work needs nothing but an index to be complete. Of Gillman's Life of Coleridge (Lond. 1838), two volumes were promised, but only one has appeared. In 1866 appeared Dr. J. H. Green's Spirit- ual PkUoaopk^y fotmded on the Teaching of 8. T. Cole- ridgt, edited by J. Simon (Lond. 2 vols. 8vo). Criti- cal essays on Coleridge abound in the leading reviews : among those that examine his philosophical theology and its results are papers hi the Chrittian Spectator^ vi, 617 ; iVmceton Review, xx, 144 ; BUhHatheea Sacra, iv, 117 ; Theological Journal (Lord's), i, 681 ; Am, BibUcal KepoeUonf, July, 1849, art. i ; BrUith Quarterk/, Jan. 1854, art. iv.